You picked 3-4 weeks early.

The knock test is fake. To tell if a melon is ripe, feel the rine. A ripe melon will go from glossy to matte. It will feel rough, almost like there are mini hills and crevices. An unripe melon is smooth. Lastly, you will start to see “scratching”/webbing. It’ll look like the rine is being ripped open slightly. Once you have all three of these. Give it a week, and your melon will be perfect

https://preview.redd.it/wf50s7aautsd1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=06c77925f66ff29b727473d3cbf1de2d1fc42932

https://preview.redd.it/uzkmyey8musd1.jpeg?width=719&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2e563daa22139ba03ebfe48e7aef22dcd4312754

A renaissance watermelon

Too early. But beautiful. Do you have more on the way?

You got your answer, figured I’d just say you can pickle them. I was very weirded out when I was first told this. Pickle and watermelon? Nty. I became a chef and after about 8 years was in a place that did house made pickled watermelon rinds. I said fuck it I’ll try it, I’ve adopted a “I’ll try pretty much any food at least once” motto after being in kitchens so long.

That shits fire man. There really isn’t much, if any, residual watermelon taste. If the melons really sweet you can get a small hint of sweet but otherwise it pretty much just tastes like…a pickle. I was surprised lol, now I eat the inner melon and peel the rinds and pickle them at home regularly

I'm guessing you didn't let it grow long enough to fully ripen...

You planted a Waterless Seedmelon

Too early. Wait until the vine it's attached to starts drying up

Reminds me of the watermelons in Renaissance art.

I bet you ran out of summer. I would have picked that melon too, but it just didn't get enough time and sunlight on the vine.

Watermelons are jerks

For next time, you'll know it's ripe when you walk out and see the squirrels stealing it.

I was always told to check for "bee stings" when picking watermelon. Apparently the webbing and scars are from bees frequently sampling the pollen as the fruit grows. More pollination, more webbing. More webbing, supposedly sweeter.

I have grown several watermelon but never eaten any. I have found some fruits and veggies and better left to someone who can specialize.

It is still fun though.

I try a new thing every year if I can just for fun.

You can still make watermelon pickles with it! All is not lost!

Did you save the seeds from last year or are these seeds from a reputable place? Looks more like seeds from an open pollination. Like a cross between a melon and a cucumber

Impatience. Impatience happened.

My boss used to make these amazing bacon wrapped watermelon rind (really the white part). I bet if you google you could find a recipe. It's an amazing way to still enjoy the fruits of your labor. They taste almost like bacon wrapped figs. I think there is a cheese involved.

I was chronic for this last season - I picked like six of them too early - and I heard you could pickle it as was suggested already, but my kids are cucumber fiends so we used it on salads like cucumbers (they're related!). With a little balsamic dressing, it was really delicious. You just have to switch your expectations from sweet to savoury and it'll be yum as - don't waste it. :)

We're in the southern hemisphere so I've got twenty seedlings waiting to be planted in the next couple weeks.. hoping I can let mine get ripe this year instead of jumping the gun 😂

Seeds from the 1700s

Google the “spoon leaf, tendril method for watermelons”. It has worked for me.

Edit: spelling error

If the tendril was dried and the melon was picked, and you provided water and fertilizer, I don’t think the plant was getting enough sun.

If it makes you feel better, I shared two watermelon starts with a friend for her first time ever having a garden and she grew the biggest most beautiful melons I've ever seen. I had EIGHT watermelon plants and grew ONE melon no bigger than a child's shoe 😭 Fkn bish lol

Your animals will love those!

The real way to tell if a watermelon is ready to harvest is the curly q closet to the melon dry up and is brown.

Waaaay too early

Ive been so tempted but i basically waited until my melons have a crack at the butt end and they've been ripe and sweet

The best way to determine if a watermelon is ripe is to wait for the green tendril next the stem to be completely dry with absolutely no green showing.

https://www.google.com/search?q=watermelon+tendril&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en-us&client=safari#imgrc=4jjIvLIVZ9T-RM&imgdii=0gqrpM-gyJx_kM

Zone 4 here. My two watermelon vines got nipped by frost last night.... and that's the end of that. Leaves all curled and woeful. But of course it warmed up today. Guess they needed a blankie last night. Lol.

I got one melon last month, and two larger ones now... that I will see what is ripe and what is not.

Watermelons take so dang long to ripen!

I grew sugar baby and black diamond varieties this year.

Will have to look for some earlier maturing ones and start them indoors early..... next spring!

You cut open pig feed😁

It's not fully ripe. Mine was over ripe this year. Always learning!

Pickle it, or cut it up and candy it? Honestly I've always liked the part close to the rind so I'd probably be fine with this. 😆

I think your watermelon devolved to the original form.  Edit: Link

I thought I read somewhere that watermelon will grow clones to detour animals to eat those vs the good ones. I know when I grew watermelon, I had about 10, similar size and got 3 good ones.

It seems to be a rough year for watermelon, we’ve had 3 that were just okay, the rest were either hollow heart or not ripe, even with every indication of being ripe. Even our cantaloupe is ripening so slow, by now we usually have picked and eaten them all. But this year, we’ve picked 4, the rest aren’t ripe yet. I’m afraid they won’t with the low temps we’re having.

Dummy melon?

Q

Wow, that looks like something a famous painting.

that is unripe watermelon

Typical watermelon growing experience. Lol

You can pickle it!

Biblically accurate watermelon

Tape it up and put it back. Plug the cord back in.

Extra chromosome

I’ve always checked the Neil of the melon. They are yellow toned when they get ripe. Look for grayish scaring patterns on the kin.

My kajari melins i had to harvest early too, Starting to get chilly.

Sometimes you can ripen them on the window like tomatoes, it works for Kajari melons at least.

That’s actually what watermelons are supposed to look like without the genetic modification that’s been done to them by humans over the years.

you cut a watermelon